Bradley Wiggins was taken to hospital after being involved in a collision with a van in Wrightington in Lancashire. Lancashire Police later confirmed that the Olympic time trial champion and yellow jersey holder suffered a number of broken ribs and further injuries to his hands and wrist.

The Lancashire Evening Post reports that The incident occurred at 6pm when a white Astra van pulled off a filling station forecourt and collided with the cyclist, although the Sun have the vehicle as a car and say that the woman driver was being questioned by police.

The incident took place about five kilometres south of the village of Eccleston, where the 32-year-old lives with wife Cath and their two children.

In a brief statement issued shortly before 1130pm this evening, Team Sky said: "We can confirm that Bradley Wiggins was involved in a road traffic accident whilst riding his bike near his home in Lancashire on Wednesday evening.

"He is being kept in hospital overnight for observation but the injuries he has sustained are not thought to be serious and he is expected to make a full and speedy recovery.

"We will announce more details in due course."

Earlier, a spokesman for Lancashire Police said: "A cyclist has been involved in a collision with a white Vauxhall Astra car.

"The rider of the bike, a 32-year-old local man, was taken to hospital by ambulance with injuries not thought to be life-threatening. His family have been told."

The attendant at the garage, Yasmin Smith, reportedly said of Wiggins, "He said he thought he had broken his ribs and while a lot of police cars arrived it was about 15 minutes before the ambulance got there by which time he was blue."

Crow Orchard Road filling station is the reported scene of the incident (Google Maps)

The Sun, which notes that Wiggins had recently shaved off the 'lucky' sideburns he sported on his way to Tour and Olympic glory, aid that he was being followed by a support vehicle when the incident happened, and quoted a source as saying: Wiggo was on a ride followed by his support team.

He was sent flying by the impact and his pals raced to his aid. A source said: “They were following him in a van and they helped him out after the crash. We think he’s going to be fine, but I don’t know how quickly he’ll be back on his bike. His family have been told.”

A lorry driver, Barry Blacklidge, aged 46, who arrived at the scene immediately after the incident, told the Sun: “There were about four police cars there. All the roads were coned off.

“I could see a pushbike, like a mountain bike, and the front wheel was all buckled. I went into the garage and asked what was going on.

"She said ‘Bradley Wiggins has just been knocked off his bike’. The ambulance turned up and they treated him for a while.

“He was up and walking around, but apparently he wasn’t too good. Drivers were stuck in the service station as the emergency vehicles blocked the exits.”

He continued: “I couldn’t get out of the service station in my truck because there were that many police vehicles there. I had to wait until they had moved. The police were examining his bike.”

Wiggins found himelf at the centre of a controversy over road safety during the Olympic Games when he suggested at a press conference that cyclists had a responsibility to wear a helmet.

He made his comments after being put on the spot with a question related to the death of 28-year-old Dan Harris from Wanstead, who was struck by a bus ferrying media between London 2012 venues immediately outside the Olympic Park.

He later took to Twitter to clarify his comments, saying that he had not been calling for helmets to be made compulsory.

Three years ago, Wiggins' wife Cath, who is herself an age group national champion on the track, vowed to stay off the road bike after being hit by a car while out riding.

A separate incident today in Leyland, less than 10 kilometres from Wiggins' home and 15 kilometres from where he was hit, left an male cyclist aged in his 80s seriously injured whe he was hit by a Citroen car on a roundabout at around 2pm. Lancashire Police have issued an appeal for information, with further details on their website.

"This collision shines a light on the increasing number of cyclists being killed or serious injured on Britain’s roads.

“Making cycling safer for everyone would cut congestion and pollution and help us to lead healthy lives. The government must create more safe space for cycling on and off roads and look at changing the law to follow the lead of many European neighbours, where a driver is also presumed at fault in a collision with a cyclist.

Dave is a founding father of road.cc and responsible for kicking the server when it breaks. In a previous life he was a graphic designer but he's also a three-time Mountain Bike Bog Snorkelling world champion, and remains unbeaten through the bog. Dave rides all sorts of bikes but tends to prefer metal ones. He's getting old is why.

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OldRidgeback[2872 posts]5 years ago

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Heal up soon Wiggo - think the van driver is going to have some questions to answer

My thoughts go out to him, and i hope he gave the driver a proper Wiggo dressing down before he was arrested. It is the perils we all face every day and maybe now it will gain some proper traction among law makers now a high profile accident has occurred. Its a real shame though that it would take something like this, happening to a high profile cyclist for them to buck their ideas up and thats a poor reflection on our elected leadership.

A white van very nearly collected me on the over pass by Ikea Purley heading north the other day. Some days i have 2 or 3 close calls on my 8km commute through London. The common thread is that all the drivers show a lack of understanding or compliance of the road rules which ultimately endangers someone elses life.

Everyone out their ride safe, never assume what a car will do and take the higher ground and obey the road rules.

Heal up soon Wiggo - think the van driver is going to have some questions to answer

GWS Wiggo. But Ridgeback, don't hold your breath if you expect any real legal action against the van driver.

"The cyclist was just coming too fast"/"I couldn't see the cyclist because he was smaller than a truck"/"I couldn't see the cyclist because of the headlights behind him"/"He just came out of nowhere"/"I'll lose my job if I'm banned"/"SMIDSY".

Gutted for Bradley, woman will have a lot to answer for come the morning!!
Must feel pretty stupid!
I got taken out a couple of months ago, classic smidsy and the insurance are trying to blame it on me. Bloke wasn't of British origin but was insured, so that's a start.

Rather than questioning why he didn't check his mirrors (I'm pretty sure I didn't teleport onto his bonnet) they are questioning why I was on the outside of the lane.

Hope he has a swift recovery, doesn't sound like it'll impact 2013 too much fortunately. Maybe some good will come out of a bad situation though. Maybe a few more people will realise they need to pay more attention when driving and maybe it'll make cycle safety worth a few more political points and lift it off the bottom of the agenda.

Wow, what a lot of driver-bashing going on. Nobody here knows a thing about this incident other than what each of the media sources have chosen to report to suit whatever their particular agenda is however this driver has already been found guilty with an unpleasant dose of glee by a lot of posters here.
It's getting a bit boring now, all the same anti-driving comments following every story of accident involving vehicles and cycles.
I'd be surprised if many commenters never use a car/van/truck and we all know there are plenty of moron cyclists out there on the roads as well.
Don't get me wrong, I'd be very surprised If Wiggins was cycling like a moron and I wish him a speedy recovery, but let's have a bit of common sense and balance here: not every driver is a maniac, and not every cyclist is a saint.

It's crap, and I hope Wiggins isn't seriously injured and can get back on his bike quickly, but I can't help but think this could be a great thing.

Mainstream media doesn't seem to care about cyclists but an Olympic champion? Hopefully it'll force a change of views when it comes to these kinds of accidents and possibly even on liability laws. Although, because its Wiggins, I could see the whole legal process going quite smoothly for him.

My only worry is that this is used as a stick to beat cycling with to show that its 'really dangerous'. "look, its not even safe for pro cyclists on our roads".

Ribs are nasty. I cracked a couple in late September in a freak "hand slipping off the bars and flinging myself to the ground' accident. It took 6 weeks to heal and hurt like hell. I imagine a TDF is made of sterner stuff.

The fit state of Bradley Wiggins has probably done much to mitigate the effects of this crash. Some years ago I was hit from behind by a car and bounced off with sufficient force to write off the car.

At the time I was about 15Kg lighter and with good muscle tone, and I think it was this that provided a shock absorber function, and I escaped with just a chipped spine, and some mighty impressive bruises. The broken bones are likely to be the painful hairline cracks but with the added forces of powerful muscle tone raising the degree of pain you experience.

Cracked ribs are the real problem as it is almost impossible to 'set' them and let them heal. I got a couple of those when the crank snapped going uphill, and the bike rolled over with me and landed on my chest. I hope that this doesn't ruin his potential for 2013. If it does than the lawyers will really have a fine time wading in to this case.

I'm fed up with the media treatment of RTA's - If you read the Mcr Evening Post article about this the language used tries to create the impression that the "accident" just seemed to have occurred as some random act of god rather than as the result of a vehicle driver negligently failing to look properly before pulling out. No excuses , I know the location - in the dark the road is well illuminated with street lamps and light from the garage forecourt.

It'll be interesting to see what the Police will do - no doubt they'll start with asking Bradley to recommend a "Driver Awareness Course" to enable them to avoid court action to prosecute for careless driving.

The incident happened on Crow Orchard Road, close to the junction with Mossy Lea Road, at 6pm on Wednesday evening, when a white Astra van pulled off a filling station forecourt and collided with the cyclist.

Usually such incidents are described as accidents, or the cyclist is described as having collided with the motorist, not the other way around, as above. So now we know what it takes for an adult cyclist to be considered likely to know what they are doing, and intent on at least their own safety: win the Tour de France and seven Olympic medals...